Category Archives: Crafts

Here’s another Creative Solution that uses recycled materials to make a Halloween craft called a Jar-o-Lantern.

Originally, I saw the Jar-o-Lantern craft in a Women’s Day magazine about two or three years ago; now it’s also all over Pinterest. My kids love to do it every year because it’s so simple, easy, and fun. Of course, part of the Creative Solution is to adapt it according to your needs/desires. Some suggest decoupaging orange tissue paper onto a jar… others suggest painting… Some focus only on pumpkins… others suggest the same varieties of characters that I painted in the Carnival Cans Craft.

Jars: We recycle a ton of jars (from peanut butter, pickles, and salsa). I started saving the jars and found that it’s easier to remove the label and glue immediately rather than waiting until I am ready to use them later… old glue is harder to remove and I’m less likely to actually follow through on the project if I have to spend the time to clean all the old jars. While there’s a ton of suggestions for how to remove the label and glue, I find the easiest is to simply soak the jar in a container of hot water with some blue Dawn dish detergent overnight. Then label scrapes off pretty easily and I wash it before storing.

Paints: The first time we painted the Jar-o-Lanterns, we did all pumpkins. This time we painted the jars similar to the Halloween Carnival Cans Craft.

Decide on your painting scheme, and apply the base coat in your chosen color. You only need one coat of paint, the thinner the better (since these will be luminaries and glow).

Orange for pumpkins

White for ghosts

Green for Frankenstein’s Monster

Purple (or lavender) for Dracula

Let the jar dry completely.

Add decorative details… let it dry.

Light: Add either a tea light candle or an electric votive (usually available in a 2-pack for $1 at the Dollar Store). My boys love keeping theirs in their bedrooms, in which case the electric version is the way to go.

Like this:

I’ve been intrigued by this old-school carnival “Knock Down the Cans” game, which uses recycled materials, since I first saw the Halloween Cans on Pinterest two years ago. So I finally sat down to follow through on doing it this week. The Pinterest link is broken, so I just went with the images and did my own thing.

Honestly, it required a bit more effort than I imagined, simply because the cans required 3 to 4 coats of paint. While I do use cheap acrylic paints, four coats is a lot.

Save and clean at least six 28 ounce cans.

Decide on your painting scheme, and apply the whole base coat in that color until you no longer see the can. (Like I said, it took me 3 to 4 coats.) Definitely use acrylic paint;tempra will flake off. Be sure to let it dry completely between coats

Orange for pumpkins

White for ghosts

Green for Frankenstein’s Monster

Purple (or lavender) for Dracula

(not pictured) Black for Cats

(not pictured) Brown or Red for Owls

Add decorative details… let it dry.

Spray finish in Rust-oleum Crystal Clear Enamel (note: if you don’t do this finishing spray, the cans will quickly chip, and the color won’t be as bright… trust me: you want to do the finishing spray).

Total time: 2 – 3 hours, paced over the course of a few days. Cost: $0 (because I had all the paint and finishing spray on hand).

I plan on using this game at a Halloween party we have with family friends before trick-or-treating, but decided to test it out one afternoon that my boys had a friend over. This old school fun was a HUGEhit! Definitely worth the time to create.

This was super, super easy. Using leftover streamers, masking tape, and paper plates, I put this together in less than 15 minutes.

Hair: adhere some streamers to the top of your door with masking tape.

Eyes: paint black dots on a couple of white paper (or foam) plates, adhere those to your door with a loop of masking tape… add angry eyebrows with more masking tape.

Mouth: more masking tape… one across and several shorter pieces slanting in different directions

Since I already had all the supplies on hand, this cost me $0.

2. Picture Window Pumpkin (Julie Original Creative Solution)

We have a 9-panel picture window in the “formal living room” that we use as the boys’ playroom. I decided to cover the window panes by making a pumpkin face using bulletin board paper from the Teacher Supply Store (Lakeshore Learning). With the help of my 6 1/2 year old, this project took about 1 1/2 hours total.

Measure and cut the paper (30 minutes)

Paint the face on the appropriate pieces (20 minutes to paint, another 20 min to dry)

Hang the pieces on the window using masking tape (20 minutes)

The Pumpkin Window looks great during the day and glows at night. Total cost: $6 – $7 for a roll of paper; I already had the masking tape and paint on hand.

Like this:

My boy are rough on the knees of jeans, wearing through them far before they outgrow them. I’ve seen cute ideas on Pinterest (like this one) for patching holey knees, but in reality, my sewing skills are mediocre at best. And I detest hand sewing. So here’s a Creative Solution is for a boy-friendly No-Sew Patch that we affectionately call Monster Jeans.

Materials Needed:

Heat-N-Bond (iron-on adhesive) which can be found in the Notions aisle of a fabric store

Red material for the patch; I use felt because it’s inexpensive, thick(ish) and feels soft(ish) on the kids’ knees.

2. Cut a square-ish fabric patch that has at least a 1″ perimeter larger than the hole. (Why? Look at step 3.)

3. Cut enough Heat-N-Bond to create a perimeter around the patch. Pro Tip: You don’t want the glue from the Heat-N-Bond to be on top of the hole… only around it.Otherwise it gets messy, since the glue will stick through the hole to the “right side” of the jeans.

I can usually find Heat-N-Bond in two widths… I didn’t have any of the thinner 3/8″ width handy, so I just cut the 7/8″ in half when I made my perimeter.

4. Flip the patch, carefully placing the Heat-n-Bond strips around the hole, and iron. The Heat-n-Bond directions say to use your iron on the steam setting. Do that.

5. Let the patch cool… I usually do several pairs of pants at once, so this is the time to repeat steps 1-4 with the other pairs.

6. Turn the pants/jeans right side out and use either a small scissors or seam ripper to cut away the white fringe… possibly making the hole a little bit bigger so that the red is exposed.

7. Paint the whites of the eyes. If you don’t have fabric paint, you can just use acrylic… it may fade/chip over time, or it may not. I have the fabric paint handy, so it was no big deal to use that.

8. Let the white paint dry. Don’t be impatient; they will smudge if they aren’t dry (don’t ask me how I know this). Then go back and dot your eyes in black or blue or whatever color your Monster wants to have.

9. The first time I did these, I used Fray Check around the mouth so it wouldn’t get all frayed… but the whites of the jeans end up looking like Monster teeth, and they really don’t fray all that horribly… so don’t worry about it. Use it or don’t… it’s optional!

10. Let the paint fully dry (overnight is best, so it sets really well) before letting your kid wear it. Wash the jeans as you normally would. Feel free to add more patches as needed.

Like this:

Photo Letter Art is a crafty Creative Solution where you take pictures of letters and spell-out a word or name. I recently decided to try doing this using letters in my neighborhood to spell out our last name.

I biked around my community and snapped photos of street signs, businesses, parks, etc., using my iPhone 5s camera.

It took me three separate trips because some letters didn’t come out in focus, especially when I wanted to obtain a letter from a specific place and that sign wasn’t cooperative. For instance, I really wanted a letter from my Church… but none of the signs were cooperating and the images weren’t working. Finally I got the idea to take a pic of the cross in the stained glass for the “T,” which worked really well.

If you want to try this, I’d suggest:

Write down the letters in the word/name you’re trying to spell out (somehow I forgot to account for the two “E’s” in my last name).

Take at least 5 different photos of the different letters (again, the out-of-focus problem).

I printed the letters at my neighborhood CVS on 4×6 paper. With 8 letters in my last name, that meant I’d need a board to be more than 32 inches long (8 prints x 4″ wide prints = 32″ + board).

My husband cut a 1×8 board 35″ and routed the edges. I painted the background in the color of our exterior trim, mod podged the letters on to the board (with a homemade 50-50 water and glue solution), coated with poly, and screwed eye-holes into the top for hanging. It hangs on our back patio (and I love it!).

It turned out so well that the kids each asked to have their first names done for a name plate on their bedroom doors. They helped find the letter “X” for each of their names by biking around the neighborhood with me, which they loved.

For these, I decided to make the letters smaller. Using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, I “printed” two 4×3 images on each 4×6 print, cut, and assembled. For the boys’ Letter Art signs, I used scrap wood that I painted with leftover latex paint from their bedrooms. Then mod podged and poly as before. I mounted their signs on their bedroom doors using Command 3M strips.

When I made the boys signs, I also created a second Family Name sign for our front porch, which hangs above the mailbox. This is also the smaller 4×3 size letters, so it’s a smaller board.

This is a pretty versatile craft, since you can spell out any word or name by using the signs you see in your neighborhood every day.

Like this:

Looking for a Creative Solution for Valentine’s cardsfor your kids’ classmates that has a personal touch?

Use their favorite toys and take a picture!

My boys love LEGOs, so we spelled out our greeting on an extra-large base plate. My older son built the heart. My younger son selected the minifigs and helped find the bricks. Then my husband snapped the pic. We don’t attach treats or toys to our V-Day cards; it’s just a fun message of love for friends and classmates.

I equipped each boy with his own roll of double-sided tape and a large bin of neglected scrapbook paper so that each could create his own cards.

The end result was far from Pinterest-looking-precision, but the kids actually had fun doing them… and it was also a far cry from last year’s bout of misery, nagging, and day-drinking.

The reason I think this Creative Solutionworked is because:

They were involved in the creative process–not just the handwriting part.

Like this:

This Creative Solution is a cute, easy, fun, no-sew Valentine’s decoration that cost less than $5 to make.

Reminiscent of those Necco Sweetheart candies from childhood, it’s four hearts marked with our names, hanging on a ribbon. Got more people in your family? Use more hearts. Or mark them with the Sweetheart Candy words, like “Be Mine” and such. Be Creative. Come up with a Solutionthat works for you! The basic directions are the same.

Supplies needed:

4 (or however many) small hearts from the wooden crafts section of a craft store. I got these from Hobby Lobby for 79¢ each.

Wide fabric ribbon (I had purchased some from the Christmas clearance section of JoAnn’s)

Smaller decorative ribbon to adhere to the top

1/2 pipe cleaner

2 popsicle sticks

Acrylic paints and brushes

Hot Glue Gun and glue sticks

Directions:

Paint the hearts in whatever pastel colors work for you.

After they dry, paint whatever words or names you want in RED capital letters.

After the paint dries, hot glue the hearts to the ribbon… spacing them evenly

Cut both popsicle sticks to be the width of the ribbon

On both the top and bottom, wrap the ribbon around the popsicle stick and hot glue it in place.

The top will become the “hanger,” and the bottom just weighs it down so it lays properly.

Wrap the pipe cleaner around either side of the top popsicle stick, bending it into a little triangle hanger.

Make a pretty bow using a second ribbon, and hot glue it to the top (to hide the “hanger” and pipe cleaner).

I used a command hook to hang it on the cabinet in my old house and on the closet door in my new house. Cute, right?